Pop Culture Diary: This Week's Reviews, Reads and Roundups: 'The Harder They Come,' Ralph Steadman, More

What I've Been Into...

"The Harder They Come" (1972) I'd never seen this 1972 cult classic before, but have enjoyed listening the amazing soundtrack for years. This week, I finally took the plunge, taking in a screening at my local community theater. I'm glad I did.

Not only does the film include all of that great music from the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, the Melodians and Jimmy Cliff, who stars as aspiring singer Ivan.

Cliff is a natural and, while the film is low-budget, predictable and awkward at times, his performance and Ivan's story hold our attention.

His creative efforts foiled and cheated in a record deal, Ivan turns to crime, becoming a key player in a marijuana smuggling gang, where he's again cheated and mistreated. He snaps, becoming a two-gun killer or cops and crooks a like and becoming an anti-hero figure in Kingston's slums. You can guess the ending. It's basically a 1940s Warner Bros. gangster film, but transposed to early 70s Jamaica it becomes something unique and new.

We're taken to a place we've not been before, and placed in a culture with its own rules. There are schisms between rural and urban working class people, between the underclass and the wealthy, between outlaws and corrupt members of the Establishment - cops, record producers, deejays and journalists - with wonderful music running through nearly ever scene.

The film is definitely worth a look and the soundtrack LP is a must-have: The perfect reggae primer and a pretty good soundtrack to your summer, no matter what you're up to.

Reads:

Retro Futurista has a new interview with famed illustrator Ralph Steadman.

We live in an era where so much art is created on clean, undo-friendly digital tablets. What do you think is lost when an artist no longer risks making a permanent mistake with a single wrong stroke? Do these flaws and errors actually serve to enrich and expand creativity?

Yes, perfection removes the humanity from work. I always say “There is no such thing as a mistake – a mistake is an opportunity to do something else.” You might surprise yourself in the act of creation.